Career Change

         I’m a teacher and recently quit after thirteen years at the same school. The reason for making such a dramatic decision was simple; my health. I was working for a woman who decided to make my life miserable because I didn’t agree with the way she was doing things. I know there is more than one way to skin a cat (another cat comment), but not allowing someone to voice his or her opinion is never useful.

            So here are some things that helped me make this move.

1-    I have a loving and supportive wife. She encourages me to stay alive rather than go back to a hostile environment. I think she would rather have me poor and alive than rich and dead.

2-    I was dying. I either needed to take more medicine (which would eventually kill me) or remove myself from the situation.

3-    I have a plan. I still want to teach, but not at the same school I’ve been at my whole career. The problem is that I’m too old and too educated to easily find a new position. I’m going to become a substitute teacher for a school district that will hire me once a position opens up.

4-    We’re downsizing. Because we only have one child living with us now, we no longer need the house with a room for each child. Dreaming of grandchildren coming to stay is not enough reason to keep a house larger than you need. Besides, keeping a house this large clean is a nightmare.

5-    Other people have done it and survived. I have a friend who is eighty-three years old and has changed his career more times than he has hair left on his head (he's not bald yet). He and his wife live a comfortable life and they have so many stories to tell I could listen to them for hours (I actually have).

6-    Other people haven’t done it and died. There are lots of very sad stories of men and women who died miserably doing the same job their whole lives. I don’t want to be another sad story.

This was not an easy decision, but I know it's the right one for me. One of my very good friends is going through the same thing I am with the same principal, but his wife is not supportive. She thinks he is just being a quitter and needs to suck it up. Well, no matter how closely our lives resemble a sport, they're not. A midlife crisis is not a death sentence and we shouldn’t feel like quitters if we need a change.

For those of you who are in similar shoes, I have this to say. Do what you need to do to survive, take a chance, and overcome your fears. History shows us that very few "successful" people have done the same thing their whole life. The name of this blog is “surviving midlife” and it's called that for a reason.

If anyone has any other suggestions, please leave them in the comments. I’d love to hear what other people have to say about this.